Tram
Historically, the city of , in the autonomous community of , had a large tramway network. The city's first tram line opened in 1872, but almost all of these historic lines had closed by 1971, being replaced by buses and by the expanding Barcelona Metro. The one remaining line, the Tramvia Blau, was retained as tourist attraction, utilising historic rolling stock. However at the beginning of the 21st century, two new tram systems, the Trambaix and Trambesòs, opened in the suburbs of the city. Trambaix The Trambaix is a ( ) system operated by connecting the area with the city of , . It opened to the public on April 5, 2004 after a weekend when the tram could be used free of charge. The Trambaix includes three different routes (T1, T2 and T3). The tram route starts at Plaça Francesc Macià in Barcelona to the west of the city and extends west, passing , , , and . An extension of Tram T3 opened on December 8, 2006, as far as Sant Feliu Consell Comarcal in . The yearly ridership of all of its lines combined is of 15,057,318 passengers as of 2008. The Trambaix is part of the Barcelona tram system and complements the Trambesòs that runs to the north-east of the city. T1 and T2 T3 Trambesòs The Trambesòs is a ( ) system operated by . The network consists of three routes that connect the district of in Barcelona to and municipalities. Its name comes from the union of the words "tram", an abbreviation of the Catalan word tramvia, and "Besòs", the name of an area in northern dominated by river Besòs. The first section of Trambesòs was opened on 8 May 2004 as part of route T4 and since its opening it has undergone several extensions, the last of which took place on 15 June 2008 with the creation of route T6 between Estació de Sant Adrià de Besòs and Gorg metro station in Badalona. The network is operated by TRAM like Trambaix, which runs to several municipalities in and the southwestern part of Barcelonès. Several projects to link those networks via Barcelona city centre have been proposed by the government as well as other expansion projects. History The system comprises 27 stops and has a total length of 14 km whereby three different routes are run. The network is configured as a double-track electrified tramline built to the standard track gauge that starts near in and continues towards and through and , the two arterial corridors of the network to enter the city. There is also another branch that crosses La Rambla de la Mina in Sant Adrià and connects the Gran Via section with the Avinguda Diagonal section. Trambesòs uses exclusive infrastructure such as a reserved platform for its circulation in all its path and dedicated signaling. The exclusive use of the reserved platform by the tram provides greater regularity, speed and safety, while it is only contacted with other vehicles at intersections, which are regulated by traffic lights despite not having the system fully operational, what would allow the tram to reach 20 km/h. The reserved platform houses the tracks, the overhead contact system (OCS), the dedicated signaling and the railway platforms. In addition, it is level with the sidewalks in most of its path and is sometimes grass-covered or simply covered in concrete or like the road surface. In order to supply to the overhead line, six substations were built along the line, providing a voltage of 750 V DC. The contact wire has a cross-section of 150 mm² supported by several metallic utility poles positioned along the railway tracks. The rolling stock operated on the network is composed of 18 Citadis 302 low-floor trams built in its variation "Barcelona" (teal and white colors) by at its manufacturing plant in . Tram units are parked and maintained at the only depot of Trambesòs located next to Central Tèrmica del Besòs stop, on a triangular piece of land between (B-10) and railway tracks. (ATM) is the transport authority responsible for fares and ticketing, and for marketing the network. Trambesòs is part of the integrated fare system within and is entirely within ATM fare zone 1. Fares are the same as the ones applied on Trambaix as well as the ticket system. Single tickets can be purchased at stops by using ticket machines and allow you to transfer between other Trambesòs routes for 30 minutes without having to buy another ticket All tickets or other transportation cards must be validated in a machine by the door of the tram although underground stops have ticket barriers so there is no need to validate the ticket on the tram. Lines T4 T5 T6 Tram future Since the modern tram system started in 2004, the possibility was envisaged to connect Trambaix and Trambesòs. In September 2008 the mayor of Barcelona, , said in a TV programme that in the future both trams will be connect over the Diagonal Avenue. Currently, the ( 's government) is planning that project. See also * Barcelona Metro External links * ''Trambaix'' on Wikipedia * ''Trambesòs'' on Wikipedia * Official site * Unofficial site of Tram * Tram in Barcelona es:Tranvía de Barcelona Category:Lines